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Discontent & Defeatism

As I continue to read through the book of Numbers, I am daily shaking my head at perpetual discontent among the Israelites. Imagine how irritated Moses was! Have you ever had to manage or work with a group of chronic malcontents? It's amazing how just a few of them can absolutely suck the life out of the whole place!...perhaps even the whole galaxy, if they weren't limited by atmospheric forces. 

Today, we (and I mean the royal "we") might have a legitimate, documented, witnessed, recorded, notarized, TMZ-grade Titanic-size boatload of complaints, but how much does it REALLY help to make those issues the center of your attention? (or the entirety of it?) The Lord knows we all need to vent a little, once in awhile, but this should be done in very limited quantities, and with a very private audience--someone you trust implicitly. That would NOT be your Facebook or Twitter audience, ladies (and gentlemen).

 William Shakespeare wrote: "Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes." 

 Freedom of speech is such a horribly abused practice. I have seen more respectable people diminish their own images by the stream of complaints they constantly issue--creating a Peanuts Pig-pen style cloud of whatever you might call the antithesis of a life force all around them. They air their dirty laundry with everyone, harping on how cruelly and consistently they have been wronged, how awful the world is, and so-on. In the background, picture their beautiful, healthy children, nice clothes, a roof over their heads, the ability to read, write and sit down to a hearty meal---much more than the majority of the world will ever have the opportunity to enjoy.

 Ask yourself--how much energy, time, and effort am I wasting on petty complaints? Could that time be better spent quietly developing and deploying solutions instead of stirring up discontent and playing the victim? I never read anything, from biography to fairy tale, where the hero emerged victorious with a defeatist attitude, and I'm pretty sure if the Queen of England (every girl's gold standard of good conduct) had a facebook page, she would not be plastering it with complaints about her son's debaucheries, how ill-treated and misunderstood she is, how she can't enjoy a cup of tea anywhere in society because everyone is so fake and deceitful...

How can we possibly expect our daughters to have the healthy, vibrant outlook that the challenges of their lives will require, if we conduct ourselves with so little dignity?

 If we have to zip our lips and zip-tie our hands to keep from blabbing and tweeting all our wounds and woes, maybe we should. Not everything that's true needs to be said (certainly not broadcast).  

 Author Stephen Covey, who has unlocked so many secrets to personal and professional success, wrote: "Stop being a critic and be light; don't be a judge, be a model." We all have spheres of influence much larger than we suspect--instead of being a black hole in the middle of it, be the sun.

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